Classics 22: Etymology

THIS page is an omnium-gatherum of verbal phenomena that are connected (sometimes loosely) to things we have covered in this class:

• Where do words come from?
• out of the blue?
• human imagination
• but does that always have a source? a causal explanation?
• any examples come to mind?
• grok?
  
• Other words
• Pronunciations change such that it no longer seems like the 'same' word
  
• Sense changes to such a degree that a "new word" emerges
• A common way for that to happen is when a word comes to be used for a different part of speech.
  
• Here's a fun document that contains some instances of that, among other things.
  
• A language borrows "loanwords" from another language
• Combinations of existing words
• Acronyms from existing words (a very recent phenomenon)
  
• Imitation of sounds
  
• Onomatopoetic formations
• this accounts for few words, many of which quickly enter the stream of non-imitative linguistic phenomena
• Challenge: can you think of any other source of new words? I.e. one that is not from other words or imitative of a sound?
  

• "Nonce words"
• Words made up ad hoc to be used at the time for a purpose specific to that occasion
  
• Most never make it into general acceptance: if they did, they would no longer be "nonce words"
• Examples of possible nonce words
• UVM-ification
• UVM-ness
• thingamawhozit
• Etymolygificatorifactionation
• Usually the context makes it clear what the word means: often the word's elements themselves make it clear even without a context.

• Compound types:
  
• There are three basic types:
•  open compounds,
  
• closed compounds,
  
• and hyphenated compounds
  
• e.g. rain dance, cupboard, and green-blind (a kind of color blindness)
  
• Knowing the difference will help you write correct standard English: a good dictionary usually gives the hyphenated and closed compounds and some of the open ones. Style guides like the Chicago Manual of Style or MLA style also help here. Basically, the rule is to be consistent.
  
• And then there are fancy Sanskrit-derived linguistic terms for compounds, which are kind of fun and open a window onto ways to think about compound words: but these are not really exhaustive of English compounds or terribly useful for English linguists.
  
• Compounds are most often made up of 2 parts of the form AB: the first element is labeled A, the second B
• tatpurusha
• Generic Meaning: a type of B that is related to A in some way that reflects the grammatical case of A
• "tatpurusha" means literally "that man" which has come to mean "that person's man"
  
• Meaning: "A's B" or the equivalent "a B of A"
  
• sheepskin
• cynosure
• aqueduct < aquae ductus
• hogwash
  
• Meaning: a B that has A
• motorboat
• cupboard?
• sailboat
• nameplate
  
• Meaning: A is the object of activity B
• shoemaker, shoemaking
• puddle-jumper (a kind of plane)
• head-shrinker
  
• Meaning: a B located/living in/on A
• tree toad
• potato beetle
• citydweller
  
• Meaning: action B done by agent A
  
• man-made
• dog-bite
• fleabitten
• Meaning: action B done by means of instrument A
• land-locked
• hidebound
• ropeburn
  
• Meaning: any of numerous other relations that don't fit in the above categorization
  
• B from A
• heaven-sent
• B belongs to A
• Fanblade
  
• dvandva
• Meaning: both A and B
• secretary-treasurer
• bittersweet
• sociopolitical
  
• bahuvrihi (the word "bahuvrihi" means "much rice" and refers to a rich person in Sanskrit)
• Meaning: "one having B that is A"
• Note that the thing referred to by the compound as a whole is neither an A nor a B
  
• barefoot
• redhead
• greybeard
• sabertooth
• dvigu (means "two cows" in Sanskrit: it's a bahuvrihi)
• any compound in which A is a number
• foursquare
• threepenny
• threescore
  
• Where do these fit? Do they fit anywhere?
  
• dogbreath
• hogtied
• musclebound
• housebound
• windshield
• hamhanded
• doorway
• headhunter
• dogleg
  
• ...
• Note that those unusual terms for compounds above are Sanskrit terms that apply well to Sanskrit, presumably, but may not be the best way to analyze English compounds, even though all of those terms are used in some linguistic contexts to apply to non-Sanskrit terms, and several are in Merriam Webster's Unabridged.
  
• Also note that there are many compounds that will not easily fit into one of these categories

• Reduplication
• The repetition of a word-element within the same word
• Different languages use reduplication in different sorts of words for different functions
• Many of the examples below are not originally English
• And reduplication does not have any particular meaning or function by itself: it is adopted in various languages for very different purposes, meanings, and functions. Thus in one language it might be used to form perfect verbs (Greek) and in another for baby words (English) and in another for other purposes.
  
• Complete reduplication
• mahimahi
• humuhumunukunukuapua'a
• wikiwiki
• couscous
• muumuu
• bonbon
• bye-bye
• fifty-fifty
• mama
• papa
• bubba?
  
• Rhyme-reduplication: note that these are all informal
  
• wingding
• powwow
• hurly-burly
• super-duper
• teeny-weeny
• itsy-bitsy
• nitwit
• claptrap
• tidbit
• Alliterative reduplication
• flip-flop
• flimflam
• slipslop
• hip-hop
• notice the short i, then short o sequence? It's no accident. The other way around may not sound so nice: try to find reduplication with the reverse order of vowels.
  
• Ablaut reduplication?
• bric-a-brac
• criss-cross
• teeter-totter
• zigzag
• A funny productive form for reduplication
  
• Explanatory note: A "productive" linguistic phenomena is one that can be and is used right now in the English language to create new forms. Thus -ed, -ful, and many other forms are currently productive forms.
  
• ---, schm---
  
• Oedipus-Schmedipus
• put shm before the second repetition and use it in some pointed way
• Jacques Schmaques.
  
• Paired words
• Antonyms
  
• There are so many: think of a few on your own.
  
• "Unpaired words"
• Words that seem as if they are part of a pair, but one member seems to be missing
  
• uncouth: couth exists as a word, but is rare
• unkempt: again, kempt exists, but is rare
• untoward: toward has no properly related meaning
  
• dishevelled: no apparent paired word exists
• innocuous: nocuous exists, but is rare
• ruthless: where is Ruth, anyway?
  
• disappointed
  
• Fake paired words
• ravel and unravel both mean the same thing
• regardless and irregardless mean the same thing (BTW "irregardless" is usually considered bad usage, but that's for pedants and editors to wrangle about)
• caregiver, caretaker
  
• flammable, inflammable
• bone, debone
• thaw, unthaw
  
• press, depress
  
• "Cranberry" morphemes
• A useful term to describe combining forms whose original meaning is lost/not apparent.
• "Cran" in cranberry comes from "crane," but no one who has not learned that from a dictionary usually knows it: hence "cran" is a cranberry morpheme, as in cranapple juice. It's used for all sorts of food products nowadays.
• am- in chemistry
• -o-ma> -oma in medicine
• "International Scientific Vocabulary" is full of these: when you think of it, this is simply semantic shift in 'roots' where the original meaning has become obsolete.
  
• Metathesis
  
• Metathesis occurs when an order is switched
• For example, many people say /aks/ instead of ask: that is metathesis
  
• and that particular one goes way back in English and is not confined to its most familiar current home in 'Black English' at all
  
• Metathesis is perhaps originally a mistake, but when the "mistake" becomes the norm, the language changes
  
• Other examples
• Purty instead of pretty
  
• Nucular instead of nuclear
• Calvary instead of cavalry (which is still considered a mistake because Calvary is a word, and cavalry is also a word: but see splits and mergers below)
  
• JUST FOR FUN: Spoonerisms: between-word metathesis
  
• William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930) of New College, Oxford, gave his name to this phenomenon, but not many really go back to him.
  
• Examples (which should serve well enough to define what a spoonerism is)
• "Mardon me padam, this pie is occupewed. Can I sew you to another sheet?" (attributed to Reverend Spooner)
• I'd rather have a bottle in front o' me than a frontal lobotomy (a more modern example)
• Flutterby
• Tongue-twisters that provoke or invoke spoonerisms: I dare you to say the following fast:
• One smart feller, he felt smart. Two smart fellers, they felt smart. Three smart fellers, they felt smart, and that's the end of the three smart fellers, who felt smart.
• Now try:
• I'm not the pheasant plucker, I'm the pheasant plucker's son. I'm only plucking pheasants because the pheasant plucker's gone.

• Temporal continuity in words
• Objects, like your pencil, are such that they mostly come to exist at some time and then continue to exist in a smoothe unbroken stream in both time and space, so they have spatio-temporal continuity and object permanence. One might expect that words come to be used gradually at first, then come to be used generally, and then sometimes decline in use. But that's not always the case. Words need not have spatio-temporal continuity: but are they the same word if they don't? Depends on how you define "word."
  
• Here are some examples of words that exhibit gaps in use (taken from The Oxford Guide to Etymology by Philip Durkin)
  
• air kiss has one attestation in 1887, then again in 1986
• ballading has an attestation in 1630, then used again in 1959
• carcinogen used once in 1853, then since 1936
• openness has a gap in usage between Old English and 1530
• when did "unfriend" first occur?
• as a verb, 1659!
• as a noun, circa 1275!
• what goes around comes around
  
• Mergers and Splits
• A Merger is when two words become one, and a split is when one word becomes two.
• For example, Latin concilium (con- + calere "to call") and consilium (consulere "to consult") led to French concile and conseil, then English merged them into Middle English conseil, conceil, concile, consile, counseil, and counsel.
• Then Modern English split them into council and counsel.
•  re-borrowing:
• borrowing is a common way new words enter a language: but a borrowed word can be borrowed back by the source language.
  
• French pret-a-porter was a calque ("direct" translation) of English ready to wear, then English borrowed the French pret-a-porter as a synonym of ready-to-wear, but a prestigious one.
• English milord is from French milord, which is itself borrowed from English my lord.
• English mama-san is from Japanese mama-san, which is from English mama + Japanese honorific -san.
• Phase  is borrowed from French. In English, it developed many physics senses, which were then borrowed back into French.
• Middle French pionnier (foot soldier, person who digs) > English pioneer > French adoption of English senses "early colonist"
• English riding coat > French redingote > English redingote.
• English karaoke < Japanese kara "empty" + oke "orchestra" (from okestura < English orchestra).
• Abbreviations: a different kind of word and a source of conventional words
  
• A shortened form of a word that is used as a shortened form and is not considered a word in its own right
  
• Note that when an abbreviation comes to be used as a word in its own right, it is arguably no longer an abbreviation.
• Not always the first letters/syllable only
• Consider Dr. and Mr. and Mrs.: some people feel that these should not have a period after them because they omit the middle and include both extremities of what they abbreviate.
• When one spells out the full version, that is the expansion of the acronym
• Although acronyms have existed since Ancient Rome (SPQR) and early Christian times (ιχθυς) and in Jewish traditions dating back even further, they really became common in the 19th c. when various needs and uses for shortened versions of things became common in business and the military. In the mid-20th century, using acronyms became common in a more widespread way.
  
• Acronyms and Initialisms and Alphabetisms
  
• An acronym is the same as an initialism or an alphabetism: it uses the initial letters of its component words to form an abbreviation
• But some dictionaries say that an acronym is pronounced by sounding out the resulting sequence of letters phonetically (e.g. AWOL or RADAR) whereas initialisms are pronounced by naming their letters (e.g. CIA, FBI)
• What is jpeg then? an acro-initialism?
• And what about FAQ or GIF: some people say it phonetically whereas others say the three letters.
  
• UVM= universitas viridis montis
  
• TLA
• Three-letter-acronym
• Interestingly, TLA is itself a TLA, just as oxymoron is an oxymoron
• WWW is an acronym that actually takes more syllables to pronounce than what it stands for (9 versus 3): but it is faster to type and hence useful?
• Recursive Acronyms
• When you expand out GNU, it stands for "GNU's Not Unix": if you expand that out, it becomes "GNU's Not Unix's Not Unix," but then you have to expand that out into "GNU's Not Unix's Not Unix's not Unix" etc.
• Pseudo-Acronyms
• IOU
• K9
• Redundancy occurs
  
• "PIN number"
• "LCD display"
• Plurals are difficult
• CDs
• CD's
• C.D.s
• C.D.'s
• Possessives of plurals even more so
• sometimes it becomes viral:
• is it g i f or /jif/ or /gif/?
  
• Some are set free: Orphan Initialisms
  
• KFC no long stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken (too regional. old image)
• AT&T officially no longer stands for American Telephone and Telegraph
• IBM doesn't want to have to worry about having an English name in non-English venues, so it is just IBM and officially no longer International Business Machines
  
• Macronyms
• with the popularity of acronyms, it was inevitable: acronyms inside of acronyms
• AIM=AOL Instant Messenger
• Abbreviations
• There are so many abbreviations that I think the list is longer than the number of entries in the OED
• check out abbreviations.com